Re: Good article

It does seem like a very good article...but the statistics given certainly didn't cheer up my evening! It says that in 2007 there will be an estimated 5510 cases of intrahepatic CC in woman with a mortality of 5500. I have never read such poor statistics for survival. I know it includes those who are unable to have resection (I think that was 90%), but VERY depressing numbers!!!

Re: Good article

Jean.....I don't put much value in to the statistics. Also, it is the application of a probability theory to specific data. In other words: "It calculates the probability." It had been explained to us: This is your cancer and you have your own response and not that of another person.

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Re: Good article

Carol,

This is a great article!

Jean,

One thing to remember about statistics is that when you read them they are already out of date. Ex. 5 year survival rates. By the time you read these numbers they are five years old. With new technologies occuring every day in medicine these are merely guidelines.

God made eveyone of us unique and the way everyone reacts to this disease is unique.

Keep the faith!

Cherbourg

My Mom lost her one year battle with CC on April 3, 2009.

"A prognosis is simply an audit of how truly precious each day is. Live each day to the maximum, celebrate what was, and what is - Don't spend your life looking forward to what will or might be." .... words of wisdom from my beloved son on hearing of his grandmother's CC prognosis.

Re: Good article

Cherbourg...thanks for your comments. I very much appreciate them as well as Marions. I just found myself getting so depressed over these numbers and I'm not a person who usually gets depressed. I took the dogs for a long walk tonight in the rain (I do live in Seattle!) and just kept thinking about this. Kept going over those numbers, then I found myself getting really angry at this disease that has taken the lives of and continues to take the lives of so many. All of the people here that I have come to know and care about and respect so much and that leaves such grief behind. I decided that I just REFUSE to let this take ANY joy from my life...I just will not let it take that from me. Numbers are just numbers and, as you said, we are each unique...and I am not a number! I do like LuLu's signature about her husband "I will not let cancer take him"...and I will not let it take me. My hope, no my plan, is to be a long term survivor of this...to let others know that there IS hope.

Thanks for being there! Wishing the best to everyone here in this fight that we all share.

Re: Good article

This may not be of very much interest to many, but I did go back to the original statistics from the American Cancer Society which was sited as the source of these numbers. As this article states as well as the ACS site, these statistics apply to "liver and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma". The article is on "Cholangiocarcinoma" but they did combine primary liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma being the most common, with cholangiocarcinoma when giving the statistics. I just found it very interesting that CC statistics were not given separately.

The ACS site says: "People are not statistics. Every person is different, and every person will have his/her own experience with cancer and its treatment. And the statistics are calculated from data that may be 5 or 10 years old..." Cherbourg commented on that earlier and I think it's very true.

I just needed to clarify/understand these numbers for myself and anyone who might be reading them and felt the same as I about them!

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